Frank Caruso has been a Bruce Springsteen fan for more than three decades, but the first time the illustrator heard "Outlaw Pete," the eight-minute lead track on the 2009 album "Working on a Dream," his imagination lit up in an entirely new way.

"You know what, I've listened to that song more times than anyone on the planet probably, and I still listen to it, and it still gives me that vibe," Caruso told Speakeasy. "I still get that thrill, the chill, when I listen to that song." (You can listen to it here.)

That vibe, in turn, eventually became perhaps the unlikeliest project of Springsteen's career. "Outlaw Pete," out today in print and electronic formats from Simon & Schuster, is now a 56-page picture book that blends Springsteen's mythic tale of a bank-robbing baby in the Old West with Caruso's vivid, whimsical illustrations. It looks like it's for kids, but it features some heady themes more appropriate for adults -- love, death, regret about the sins of the past, legacies of violence and destruction. Still, Caruso's approach to giving Pete a life in pictures, however grim, could well resonate with certain young dreamers.

Caruso -- a vice president at King Features who has drawn Betty Boop and Popeye for 27 years -- talked to Speakeasy about how the character of Pete inspired him, how the project came about and what it was like working with Springsteen. Edited excerpts of the interview follow.

Were you a big fan of Bruce before this?

I've been a big fan of Bruce forever. I went to high school in North Jersey, in Wayne, and in 1980, when I was in high school, they were reviewing "The River" album, and I had to draw Bruce for the column, for the record review -- in the Wayne Hills Patriot Press -- which was great. I would say since that time I've been listening to his music and just loving his storytelling. He's one of the great storytellers. ... When you hear his songs, you see movies, you see black and white movies, you see different things. But when I heard "Outlaw Pete," the book just ran through my head. It was like, that was it. I was working on a graphic novel at the time called "Heart Transplant," with Andrew Vachss, when "Working on a Dream" came out, so of course I bought the new CD. You play music when you're drawing, and track one comes on, I hear "Outlaw Pete," and I just dropped my pen and just listened. It was like a story, like watching. It was like flipping through the book. I was like, Bruce didn't just write a great song, he created a great character. I mean, a baby in diapers, in bare feet, robbing banks? It doesn't get much better than that. So, I was taken from the first time. So I'm definitely a Bruce fan.

Frank Caruso

Philip Friedman

How did this project come about?

So then when I started thinking about "Outlaw Pete" ... it's not just illustrating a song. Bruce, you know, him being a fan of the folklore of our country and what goes on there, that all plays into the song. So it struck me [that] there was more meaning in that song than just a pop song. There's a lot that goes on there, so that meant a lot to me, which is why I was always a fan of Dr. Seuss's work. They're great, wonderful tales, but there's more buried in there. There's a lot more meaning underneath it all, and I really like that, and Bruce's work has that a thousand percent. So I started sketching around, and we were promoting "Heart Transplant" on E Street Radio, on Dave Marsh's show. So Dave and I were having lunch, and I had this idea. So I said, "Dave, what do you think of this?" And he really was the big support for me. So I did some sketches and pulled it together. I kind of loosely roughed it all out, how I saw it playing, and Dave sent it over to Bruce, and Bruce dug it. So he called, and we worked it all out. It was very organic. To me, it was all there. It was in Bruce's song, the character. To me, it was done, I just had to do it with some guidance from Bruce. He's an artist, and I just love that he allowed me to expand on that vision. And doing it together, we made sure it felt right for everyone.

Were there any specific, cool ideas Bruce might have had when you were hashing this out?

It's great working with artists. The song was there, the character was there, so you want to make sure where you're going with it is the right place. So, a lot of times, we would talk about different pages. Sometimes it would be just a word, you know, just going over a page. If I was kind of hitting a little bit of a wall, and you just say a word -- sometimes he would say one or two things, and I would walk away and say yeah, I get it now. And that opened it up, and you want to run back down to your drawing board and sketch it. I get it, that word adds a lot to it. It was a help. The song, the characters, the illustrations were already there. He did it with music.

To you, what was the most important thing to convey with the illustrations?

To stay on track, to keep the emotional feel that you have when you hear the song. I mean, every time you hear that song, there's a certain emotion that runs through your body. From the start, when you hear the opening chords, you go through the story, and you want to stay true to that. You want to stay true with color, the composition, with the layouts, with the way you're drawing the characters. I always have a thing where you don't want to give away too much because the reader or the listener of this song -- you are running this movie through your head. So I'm just kind of helping it along with color, with the pacing and cadence, and staying true ... I was trying to put Bruce's music on paper without making any turns because that could happen if you show too much or imply something else. You want it to work in tandem with what Bruce was writing, and I think that's what we did. You want to leave enough for the reader to be part of the story, too. Bruce wrote the song. I did the drawings. But you participate, as well. The reader has to participate, and that's what was important to me, was not taking that away: allowing the reader to participate and enjoy the story, enjoy the character, enjoy the music, enjoy the art, but still be part of everything, be able to interpret and enjoy it on their own. Did that help?

I feel like I put you on the spot, but you came through really well!

When you sit at the drawing board, those are the things that ... if it were a children's book or a graphic novel, a superhero thing, and they say he busted through the wall and saved the girl, you know what you're drawing. The guy's busting through the wall and saving the girl. That's what you're drawing. Sometimes you can do that, but sometimes you can't. When you saying he's an outlaw, killer and a thief, you don't want to show him killing people and robbing things. That's not what you're doing. He's contemplating that, so the person listening wants to contemplate that, so you kind of want to capture contemplation. You don't want to capture robbery, thievery and murder.

Are there any other Bruce songs you'd like to do this for?

Simon & Schuster

It's funny because I didn't set out to illustrate a Bruce song. You know what I mean? It wasn't like I was sitting around saying, oh, should I do "Backstreets" or even do "Penny Lane" or "Strawberry Fields" or "Stairway to Heaven." It wasn't like an art school project where you say, this assignment is illustrate a song. ... It wasn't sitting down to say, I love Bruce's music, let me draw one out. It was more that character that hit me. I don't think about flipping through the catalogue and saying, all right, what's next? It's more about that character, that story, that vibe that Bruce set out.